Judge Lewis Kaplan
Union-member Romero was fired in 2011 after 20 years’ employment by DHL Express Inc. He took time off until July 24, 2011, in order to recover from a June 2 injury. Upon return a supervisor purportedly harassed him and threatened him due to his injury and heritage. On Aug. 15, Romero told supervisors that he could not continue to work in a hostile work environment. He remained absent for three days. On Aug. 18, DHL sent Romero a letter stating that, under §6F(f) of its collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with his union, DHL removed him from the employee seniority list, and that as a result he was dismissed. An arbitrator found Romero lost his seniority under the CBA, justifying termination. Finding no grounds to vacate the arbitrator’s award, district court granted DHL’s cross-motion for confirmation. Romero failed to sufficiently allege the union’s breach of its duty of fair representation. Despite alleging tactical errors, he did not identify any fraudulent or dishonest actions or any behavior so unreasonable as to be irrational. The court was not persuaded by Romero’s claims that the arbitrator improperly exercised his authority under the CBA, showed bias favoring DHL, and that the award was incorrect under the CBA.
